


Give and Take

by SailorSol



Category: Haven - Fandom
Genre: Cute Kids, Fluff, Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-22
Updated: 2015-04-22
Packaged: 2018-03-25 06:26:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,125
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3800236
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SailorSol/pseuds/SailorSol
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>8 year old Duke and Nathan, and the Mega Gulp Challenge.</p><p>
  <em>"Brain freeze," Duke said solemnly, the same way people announced they were sick with things that couldn't be cured. "Most people can't do it 'cause the faster they try to drink it, the more they get brain freeze, and then they can't finish."</em>
</p><p>(Not s5 compliant.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Give and Take

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this some time ago. I haven't watched s5, so any additional back story we got about Nathan and Duke's childhood is not included here. Just a bit of fluff and cuteness.

"Psst."

Nathan didn't bother looking up from the book he was awkwardly trying to read with one arm in a cast and no feeling in his hands. If someone wanted his attention, they could use his name. That's what his ma always said, at least.

"Hey," the person tried again. It was a boy, about the same age as Nathan, hovering at the corner of the card catalog like it would hide him from anyone passing by.

"I have a name, you know," Nathan said, using his casted arm to hold the book down long enough to flip the page.

"I don't, actually. I mean, I know you got one, I just don't know what it is," the boy said. He had dark hair and dark eyes and he looked vaguely familiar, but Haven wasn't a very big town and they probably went to school together. "I'm Duke."

Nathan didn't like admitting that Duke had a point, but if they'd never met, then why should he have known Nathan's name? He sighed, letting the book fall shut. "Nathan. What do you want?"

"You're the kid who can't feel nothing, yeah?" Duke said. He was still by the card catalog, speaking in a ridiculous whisper that wasn't quiet at all. Mrs. Devlin, the librarian, was shooting them dirty looks.

"What if I am?" Nathan asked. Ma and the Chief had been so upset when they'd showed up at the hospital to see him with his broken arm. He hadn't been crying, because it hadn't hurt, but once Ma started crying, he had too, and the Chief had looked all gruff and told Nathan he wasn't allowed to go sledding anymore.

"Thought so," Duke said, and now he finally came and sat down at the chair across from Nathan. He was skinnier than Nathan, or maybe he just looked that way in the over-sized sweatshirt he was wearing. "I was there, when you broke your arm."

Oh. That's why he was familiar. Nathan had been so distracted by the white of the bone poking out of his own skin that he had barely noticed who had led him away from the woods and back into town. "Thanks. I mean, for helping."

Duke shrugged, not even looking towards Nathan's cast. "So it's true? You really can't feel nothing?"

"Anything," Nathan corrected, because he'd just got a spelling assignment back with that marked in tidy red ink. "And why does it matter?"

"Doesn't, really," Duke said. "Just, the convenience store, they're running this contest, and the prize is free slushies for an entire year."

"What kind of contest?" Nathan asked suspiciously, because slushies for an entire year sounded really fantastic, but it couldn't be easy to win.

"You know those really big slushies they have? The ones that are like, the size of a jug of milk?" Duke asked, holding his hands out to show just how big he meant.

Nathan nodded; he'd seen other people with them, but he'd never been allowed to have one before. "What about 'em?"

"Well, if you can drink an entire one of 'em in ten minutes or less, you win the prize."

"What's so hard about that?" Nathan asked. "I mean, it's lots to drink, but it can't be that hard, can it?"

"Brain freeze," Duke said solemnly, the same way people announced they were sick with things that couldn't be cured. "Most people can't do it 'cause the faster they try to drink it, the more they get brain freeze, and then they can't finish." Nathan knew what brain freeze was, of course. He'd had it, once upon a time, but he barely remembered what it felt like. "So I figured, if you really can't feel noth--anything, then maybe you could do it, yeah?"

It seemed like a good idea. "What's in it for you?"

Duke grinned, bright and sharp. "I figure, I give you the money to enter the contest, and then you share your winnings with me," he said, pulling out a wad of crumpled dollar bills. "It costs ten bucks to buy the Mega Guzzler."

Ten bucks was a lot of money. Nathan only got a dollar a week for allowance, and he was saving for a new bike. Free slushies for a year really did sound like a great prize, even if he'd have to share them. "I dunno. I don't know if my parents..."

"Oh come on," Duke interrupted him. "You don't gotta tell them. They're at work now, right? So we just go over to the convenience store, and we'll be back here in half an hour, tops. Think about it, Nate," Duke said; Nathan tried to scowl at the nickname, but he didn't know if his face did what he wanted it to. "You know those really hot, long days in August when everything is sticky and sweaty and you really just want a slushie to cool off, but you don't got enough allowance money? Well this way, it won't be a problem."

It really was a good plan. Mrs. Devlin wasn't paying attention to them anymore, which meant no one would stop them from leaving the library. And Duke was giving him a hopeful look, all wide eyes and a hesitant smile, and Nathan gave in. "Okay."

Duke barely managed to muffle his cheer as he snatched up the money off the table again. "Free slushies, here we come!"

Duke's enthusiasm was infectious. Nathan left his books on the table, following Duke out the back entrance of the library. His breath puffed into the air in front of him, but he didn't feel the cold. Duke didn't seem to notice either, because he didn't have a coat.

"Come on, Nate," Duke urged, grabbing Nathan's uninjured arm and tugging him down the sidewalk.

"Don't call me that," Nathan said, trying to keep his balance and keep pace with Duke.

Duke made a face at him. "Don't be such a stick in the mud. Friends always give friends nicknames."

Nathan stumbled and would have hit the ground, but Duke managed to hold him up somehow. "Friends?"

"Well duh," Duke said. "I saved your life, you're winning us free slushies, what did you think we were?"

Nathan hoped he was smiling and not making some other horrible face. No one had wanted to talk to him after he'd broken his arm, not even Bobby Miller, who had been his best friend since kindergarten. "Friends," he said again, trying the word out. "Yeah, okay, we're friends. But you still don't get to call me Nate."

"Sure thing, Nate," Duke said, flashing Nathan a grin before he started running down the road. "Come on! We got slushies to win!"

Nathan huffed, but followed after his new friend.

 


End file.
